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The US government has imposed sanctions on a network of four people and four firms accused of recruiting Colombian mercenaries to fight for and train a militia force in Sudan the United States claims of genocidal acts.

Group Makeup

Revealing the measures on Tuesday, the Treasury stated the operation was largely composed of Colombian nationals and companies.

Hundreds of former Colombian military personnel have been recruited to go to the Sudanese warzone to operate with the RSF paramilitary group, a faction implicated in horrific war crimes including massacres based on ethnicity and widespread kidnappings.

Discovery of Participation

The participation of ex-soldiers was first uncovered last year, after an inquiry which revealed that hundreds of ex-military personnel had been hired to engage in combat – an event that prompted an rare mea culpa from officials in Bogotá.

Former Colombian military have long been considered as some of the most in-demand contractors globally due to their extensive battlefield experience gleaned from years of internal conflict, training on Western military gear, and superior tactical education.

Reported Actions

In Sudan, the mercenaries have reportedly trained child soldiers, provided drone warfare training, and engaged in frontline combat. A mercenary was quoted as saying that working with child soldiers was "horrific and irrational" but commented that "regrettably, war operates that way".

Named Entities

Among those targeted was a retired Colombian officer, a dual Colombian-Italian national and former army officer located in the Dubai. The government said he had a central role in hiring and sending ex-military personnel to Sudan. His spouse, Claudia Viviana Oliveros Forero, was penalized as well.

Also on the penalty list was Mateo Duque Botero, a individual with Colombian and Spanish citizenship who officials alleged ran a firm accused of handling funds and payroll for the network. "Over the past two years, companies in the United States connected to Duque engaged in numerous wire transfers, amounting to millions," the government release stated.

Colombian national Mónica Muñoz Ucros was the final person to be targeted, with the company she managed said to have conducted wire transfers linked to Duque and his companies.

"The United States again calls on external actors to cease providing funding and arms to the belligerents," the agency announced.

Reaction

A senior analyst, from a conflict think tank, called the sanctions as a "highly important" milestone, noting that "targeting the enablers is the correct approach".

Furthermore, Bogotá recently passed a statute endorsing the anti-mercenary convention, designed to limit years of participation by its nationals in international fights and change domestic defense strategy.

Another expert, a scholar on the subject, advised additional measures, stating that "penalties are required yet incomplete for combating rampant mercenarism".

"This is a shadow economy and centered in the Emirates, which is difficult to penalize," he said. The United Arab Emirates has been repeatedly implicated of providing arms to the militia, an accusation it has denied. "Expect more Colombian mercenaries," McFate warned.